Mark Harrison: September 2005

Microsoft and IBM looking to broaden their collaboration products; however, they are using different approaches to achieve very similar goals. Consider the long-term vision of each vendor when deciding which products to buy.

Read Gartner Report

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Creating Custom User Menus - Extreme SharePoint Design

From Eric Shupps (The eGroup ) ...

Finally, after much delay, the lastest installment in the Extreme SharePoint Design series is finished. In this installment we will explore the creation of custom menus using the default Actions and Views menus in SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

More

Extreme SharePoint Design - Creating Custom User Menus (PDF, 464k)

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Office 2003 Service Pack 2

The following Service Packs are now available from Microsoft Update:

Achieve Forms - AFLite 2.0

Business Web Software have announced AFLite 2.0 (AFLite is a free version of AchieveForms) that now offers :

AFLite for SharePoint ... lets you design and display your AFLite forms right inside WSS or SPS
The maximum number of forms has now been doubled to 10
AFLite now offers full multi-lingual support

Monday, September 26, 2005

Deployment Guide - SQL Server Report Pack for SPS

The SQL Server Report Pack for SharePoint Portal Server Deployment Guide has been published. This guide provides a high-level overview of the Report Pack for SharePoint Portal Server including installation and description of the components contained in the Report Pack.

More info on the pack & download

Friday, September 23, 2005

Attensa for Outlook - RSS Aggregator

Im currently trialing Attensa for Outlook - an RSS aggregator that brings content from Websites, blogs and Podcast sites directly into Microsoft Outlook.

Beta Download (free)

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Heather Solomon's SharePoint Resources

From Andrew ...

"Heather's SharePoint Resources links page kicks a$$"

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Accessible SharePoint Templates

HiSoftware has joined efforts with Microsoft to deliver new templates for SharePoint developers that can be used to create sites with integrated accessibility 'out-of-the-box'.

Through these collaborative efforts, between Microsoft and HiSoftware, these templates are available at no charge and may be downloaded (registration required) from the HiSoftware Web site.

IT Forum 2005 - Office System track content

As Office System track owner for IT Forum 2005, I've been finalising our planned content. This is the list of currently proposed sessions

Office 12
Office 12 Servers
Get Ready for Windows SharePoint Services v3
Get Ready for SharePoint Portal Server / Content Management Server vNext
MS IT: SharePoint Operations at Microsoft IT
MS IT: Windows File Servers and SharePoint Products and Technologies: Clarity from the Trenches
MS IT: Securing SharePoint and the Security Configuration Wizard
MS IT: Building SharePoint for Maximum Scale - SharePoint SP2, SQL Server 2005 and 64 bit systems
MS IT: SharePoint Extranets
MS IT: How Microsoft IT Deployed Office 2003
SharePoint Gone Wrong - How to Recover / SharePoint Disaster and Recovery at Microsoft IT
So You Have Been Asked to Deploy Project Server 2003 - What Next?
Project Server 2003 - What Can it Do for You?
Managing Strategic Change
Office 2003 Deployment - Part 1
Office 2003 Deployment - Part 2
Making the Most of your Office System 2003 Deployment chalk & talk
Multilingual Deployments
Location Based Information - Bringing the Added Value to Your Organization
Best Practices for a Successful Portal Implementation
Building Data Visualization Solutions
Extend Lotus Notes/Domino applications with the Microsoft collaboration platform
Lightning demos
Panel discussion

Abstracts for the sessions will start to appear here.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Microsoft acquires Alacris - identity management solutions provider

Microsoft have announced the acquisition of Alacris, a global provider of certificate management and identity assurance software products. The technology will help extend the use of strong credentials, such as smart cards, and make authentication solutions easier to deploy and manage on the Windows platform.

UK Event - Extending SharePoint for the NHS

Extending SharePoint for the NHS ... 18 Oct London / 20 Oct York
Learn how SharePoint can be used and extended to help manage information-based business challenges in the NHS and see what it can offer in terms of document management, team collaboration, business intelligence and communication tools.

UK Event - Online Information 2005

Online Information 2005 is a 3 day international exhibition and conference addressing online content and information management solutions.

29Nov - 1Dec 2005, London

Nominations now open for various awards to recognise excellence.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Video - First look at next version of Sharepoint

Channel 9 chat about the next version of Sharepoint with PJ Hough, group program manager on the Windows Sharepoint Services team. The team talks about the future of Sharepoint and gives us a demo.

First look at next version of Sharepoint

Sunday, September 18, 2005

IT Forum 2005 - win a ticket

On the home page of the ITForum 2005 Web Site there is a new banner for 'The Game'. This is an opportunity for potential delegates to win a complimentary ticket to IT Forum in Barcelona. All they have to do is click on the banner, enter an email address (sorry the game is not open to Microsoft staff), and then select a seat in our on-line auditorium. If the seat you have chosen matches that on the entry pass, you win! We will have one winner per week ... giving away a total of 10 complimentary tickets from now until November.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

IE Developer Toolbar

The IE Developer Toolbar was announced at PDC and provides several features for deeply exploring and understanding Web pages.

Download

Features include :

Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a web page.
Locate and select specific elements on a web page through a variety of techniques.
Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
View HTML object class names, ID's, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS web feed links.
Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text.
Immediately resize the browser window to 800x600 or a custom size.
Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies. Choose from all objects or those associated with a given domain.
Choose direct links to W3C specification references, the Internet Explorer team weblog (blog), and other resources.
Display a fully featured design ruler to help accurately align objects on your pages.

Friday, September 16, 2005

PDC slides

The PDC slides are currently available here.

Update: From my experience of previous conferences, I thought they may dissappear soon after the conference ended. The SharePoint V3 related slides can be got from here (wssdemo.com).

Update 2: Now try here .

Thursday, September 15, 2005

WSS vNext Revealed

Steven Sinofsky's PDC keynote has revealed a lot of new features for the next version of Windows SharePoint Services.

Summary of what was covered is listed on Fitz's blog ... The Kimono Is Open, The Veil Is Lifted, The Gags Are Removed.

Update: Dustin Miller is running a consolidated list here.

Best Practices for MCMS 2002

Designing Your MCMS 2002 Solution for Reusability

Summary: Use best-practice design recommendations for Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 applications and Web sites to help you create your site in a way that prepares it for future versions of MCMS technology.

Best Practices for WSS

Best Practices for Ensuring Application Reusability and Upgrade in Windows SharePoint Services

Summary: Revisit key Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Software Development Kit (SDK) information to know best practices for writing code that will be optimally reusable when software updates, upgrades, or security updates are applied to a deployment.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Windows Workflow Foundation

Another PDC annoucement, Windows Workflow Foundation - a programming model, engine and tools for quickly building workflow enabled applications on Windows. It consists of a WinFX namespace, an in-process workflow engine, and designers for Visual Studio 2005. Windows Workflow Foundation is available (currently in beta) for both client and server versions of Windows.

Windows Workflow Foundation includes support for both system workflow and human workflow across a wide range of scenarios including: workflow within line of business applications, user interface page-flow, document-centric workflow, human workflow, composite workflow for service oriented applications, business rule driven workflow and workflow for systems management.

Press Release : MSDN Developer Center : Community : Forums

MSDN Article:
Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: A Developer Walkthrough ... Introduces the technologies and features of Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation that will be of interest to developers in need of creating workflow-driven applications for the Microsoft .NET platform.

Expression Designer Tools

At the PDC, Microsoft have announced Microsoft Expression, a family of professional tools for the design and production of enhanced user experiences and rich content for the Web and Windows Vista platform.

The announced products and their code names are Expression code-named:

Acrylic Graphic Designer ... a painting, illustration and effects tool for creating graphic designs;
Sparkle Interactive Designer ... a user-interface design tool for modern application development using the Windows Presentation Foundation
Quartz Web Designer ... a layout and design tool for creating Web sites.

Press release : Demo

Microsoft Gadgets

There was several mentions of Gadgets at the PDC keynote.

From the new Gadgets team blog ...

What are Gadgets? Gadgets are a new category of mini-application designed to provide information, useful lookup, or enhance an application or service on your Windows PC or the Web. Examples might include a weather gadget running on your desktop or on your homepage, an RSS Gadget that pulls in your favorite feeds, or an extension of a business application providing just-in-time status on the pulse of your business.

Gadgets come in three flavors:

Gadgets for Windows Sidebar
Gadgets for Start.com
Gadgets for Windows SideShow

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

'Son of the SmartPart' Technology Preview

From Patrick ...

'Son of the SmartPart' : We are able now to host of ASP.NET 2.0 user controls and Web parts inside a WSS SP2 Web part and provide full support for custom properties, toolparts and of course the well-beloved connection infrastructure supported by WSS. So all the nice things you have for the SmartPart v1.1 are available for the SmartPart v2.0 but now on top of the ASP.NET 2.0 framework.

More

Digi-link Revelation 1.61

Digilink have announced an update of Revelation, an easy-to-use software program that lets mobile users synchronize off-line data with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services.

New features.

New User Interface for Office 12 Core Applications

Thousands of software developers at the sold-out Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 today got a preview of a new, redesigned user interface (UI) that will debut in several core applications of the next version of Microsoft Office, code-named Office 12.

Press release.

Office 12 Word screenshot ... High-res version

Office 12 Excel screenshot ... High-res version

Office 12 Powerpoint screenshot ... High-res version

Office 12 Access screenshot ... High-res version

MSN Developer Center

The MSN Developer Center - "enabling developers with the information & software to create applications that interact with services and data on MSN" - has gone live ...

Atlas Community Preview Download

The Atlas Community Preview Site has gone live and provides links to the software, documentation, 'quick starts' and 'hands on labs'.

'Atlas' provides developers with tools designed to ease creation of AJAX-style applications - that is it enables you to develop Web applications that can update data on a Web page by making direct calls to a Web server - without needing to round trip the page.

With 'Atlas', you can take advantage of the best of ASP.NET and server-side code while doing much of the work in the browser, enabling a richer user experience.

WSS / SPS SP2 & ASP.NET 2.0 web parts

From Fitz ...

Some good news - WSSv2 SP2 will support the ASP.NET 2.0 runtime ... and there will be an announcement soon of a partner solution for enabling execution of ASP.NET 2.0 web parts in a WSS environment.

Some bad news - SPS2003 SP2 will not support the ASP.NET 2.0 runtime.

More

Update: From Maurice Prather ... What does SP2 mean for Web Parts?

Monday, September 12, 2005

Biggest year in Microsoft's 30 year history starts right now

From Torres Talking ...

With the PDC and the Tokyo Game Show both happening this week, I'm expecting a lot of cool and unexpected announcements coming from Microsoft and our partners. The next 12 months are, for a lot of teams, the culmination of 5+ years of work performed by thousands of people on a daily basis.

Say what you want about Microsoft being slow, old, and boring. Just make sure that before you open your mouth, you buckle up. The biggest year in Microsoft's 30 year history starts right now. Come along for the ride or watch from the sidelines. Either way, you can't miss it.

More

Friday, September 09, 2005

Compliance Server - free EDRM solution for SPS/WSS

I've been beta testing 80-20 Compliance Server a records management / document retention solution for SPS/WSS ... it offers an adaptable platform that helps the organization mitigate risk and strengthen corporate compliance by managing unstructured content in a centralized database repository.

But this EDRM solution has a difference ... 80-20 are donating it free of charge to the SharePoint community and furthermore it has not been crippled or made intentionally deficient in any way!

80-20 Compliance Server lets companies cost-effectively audit, retain, archive, and manage all content for compliance and includes the following components:

Server - enforces retention business rules, installed on Sharepoint Server, stores documents and metadata in SQL Server.
Web Parts - enables direct application of retention schedules to team documents.
Records Administration Workbench - for records specialists to administer disposal schedules, file plans and archives.
SDK - allows users, partners, developers etc - to further extend if desired the utility of 80-20 Compliance Server for Sharepoint in ways specific to corporate need.
File Plan - enterprise ready file plan for immediate use, can be extended or modified as needed.
Step by Step guide - to implementing retention compliance.

Join the beta program

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Introduction to XAML

Brief screencasts from Tim Sneath ...

Introduction to XAML demonstrates how you can embed all kinds of content in XAML and integrate them together.
Data Binding in Windows Presentation Foundation shows you how to build an RSS browser in just 14 lines of XAML using the data binding features present in Avalon.

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft have announced Microsoft Dynamics - the new brand of financial, customer relationship and supply-chain management solutions for small and midsize businesses, large organizations and divisions of global enterprises. The new brand will replace Microsoft Business Solutions going forward and represents Microsoft's strategy to align its products with its research and development roadmap, formerly referred to as "Project Green".

More

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Internet Explorer Extensibility

From IEBlog ...

IE provides a number of mechanisms that permit software developers to extend the browser in powerful ways. You can add:

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Outlook Team Calendar

By Jos Branders ...

Show your team's calendars side by side in a single web page - Outlook Team Calendar .

Support for the SQL Server Report Pack for SPS

Further to the problems raised here on the SQL Server Report Pack for SPS ... ive found that there is a help channel for Reporting Packs. Contact rspacks@microsoft.com.

Monday, September 05, 2005

PDC keynote live

Bill Gates' keynote from the Professional Developers Conference will be broadcast live on the Web on September 13, 2005 at 8:30am.

Details when available will appear here.

SmartPart 1.1

Jan Tielens has released SmartPart version 1.1 ...

Overview on version 1.1
Download
Building Web Parts the Smart Way (Article by Jan / Patrick)

Sunday, September 04, 2005

r.a.d.callback / r.a.d.dock

In response to strong customer demand telerik has added two great new products to the r.a.d.controls suite - r.a.d.callback and r.a.d.dock.

r.a.d.callback is a suite of AJAX-enabled UI controls, which allow you to update page content without postback and loss of scroll position. The short response time combined with the smooth interface transitions results in superior users experience and a level of interactivity, which can only be found in desktop applications.

r.a.d.callback includes 12 of the most commonly used ASP.NET form controls, along with a timer control and a generic callback control which allows integration of third-party controls. All r.a.d.callback controls offer full interoperability with the standard ASP.NET controls and 3rd party custom controls and provide support for the latest versions of all major browsers used today.

More information about r.a.d.callback can be found at http://www.telerik.com/radcallback.

The newest product in telerik's award-winning r.a.d.controls suite is a versatile component for page personalization. It represents a content placeholder, which can be moved, docked/undocked, resized, pinned, minimized and so on. The customized page layout can be saved to a file or database and reloaded when needed, which is a typical requirement for portals and extranets.

r.a.d.dock enables users to easily define dynamic page layouts of docking zones and dockable objects with simple drag-n-drop at design time. In addition, end users can customize pages based on these dynamic layouts. Some key features are various docking modes, different dockable-object behaviors, action commands, view-only mode.

More information about r.a.d.dock can be found at http://www.telerik.com/raddock

XHTML and Accessibility Standards in ASP.NET 2.0 and VS 2005

From ScottGu ...

Stephen Walther has written a great MSDN article on XHTML and Accessibility Standards in ASP.NET 2.0 and VS 2005 that has just been published:

XHTML and Accessibility Standards in ASP.NET 2.0 and VS 2005

The final release of ASP.NET 2.0 now emits XHTML 1.0 Transitional content by default, and VS 2005 also now defaults to validating content markup and providing intellisense/statement completion for both HTML and Javascript using an XHTML 1.0 Transitional schema.

More

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Wealth of new Xbox 360 information

Everything from hardware to the new dashboard discussed and uncovered ... interview with XBox boss Chris Satchell .

Friday, September 02, 2005

Skelta CMS Accelerator - Express Edition

The Skelta CMS Accelerator - Express Edition is now available ... this is a free integrated out-of-the-box workflow solution for Microsoft Content Management Server.

The CMS accelerator allows users to build extensive, customizable workflows for document approvals, automatically publish approved content and define separate workflows for multiple channels. It also has advanced features such as 2-way email, SMS and Active Directory support. Skelta CMS Accelerator is built on Skelta's award-winning workflow framework Skelta Workflow.NET.

www.start.com released

http://www.start.com has been released ... the new changes are listed here.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

ShowXml in CMS.Rapid 1.1

From Vince Rothwell (Software Architect for CMS.RAPID) ...

Rapid 1.1 contains a new developer feature that makes looking at the XML a control is using alot easier. There are two settings which need to be in place for the ShowXml button to be displayed.

More

SharePoint 2003 Sizing and Configuration Tool V2.0

From Martyn Johnson ...

This is a great little tool I have used to demonstrate IF scenarios within SPS. This obviously works very well if you already have metrics from a client.

SharePoint 2003 Sizing and Configuration Tool V2.0

origenxbox360

http://www.origenxbox360.com/

What event is the mysterious countdown for ?

The rabbit has recently moved and fruit has appeared.

Creating an RSS Feed for Your FrontPage Web Site

MSDN Article - Creating an RSS Feed for Your FrontPage Web Site

Abstract - Learn about RSS and how to programmatically create an RSS file for your FrontPage 2003 Web site. The download that accompanies this article contains a VBA project and an XSLT file that you can use to generate and display RSS feeds.

SharePoint Web Services

Great info from Renaud on SharePoint Web Services ...

Best practice : Access to SharePoint Web Services

Site Navigation System in ASP.NET 2.0

From David Gristwood ...

This week I had my first proper article published on MSDN - I've reviewed and contributed to other articles, but never sat down and done my own article. So here it is - Understanding and Extending the Site Navigation System in ASP.NET 2.0

More

And Stefan explains how to use this with MCMS - ASP.NET 2.0 and MCMS - The easy way to site navigation.

SPS 2003 Discovery Kit

The SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Discovery Kit includes a series of discovery labs that go beyond learning about a particular component of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to understanding how to build a divisional portal site solution, how to deploy Web applications that integrate tightly with the portal site environment, how to use SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services to track and analyze portal site usage, and lastly, how to customize the portal site user interface.

There are 6 labs in the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Discovery Kit. The lab manuals includes a description of the business scenario that is addressed by the lab, the teaching objectives of the lab, step-by-step instructions, dependencies for each lab and the expected amount of time needed for the lab assuming a basic familiarity with Windows SharePoint Services and limited SharePoint Portal Server 2003 experience.

Wallpapers

Some nice wallpapers here.

SharePoint - Office - Windows - Live - XBox Search, Content Management, Portals, Collaboration, Business Process, Business Intelligence, Social Networking

Friday, September 30, 2005

Thursday, September 29, 2005